


sunset

by prefacing



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, idk random fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2014-03-30
Packaged: 2018-01-17 14:39:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1391419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prefacing/pseuds/prefacing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>how do you describe a sunset to someone who can't see?</p>
            </blockquote>





	sunset

**Author's Note:**

> more drabbles from way back when i knew how to write!! /o/

"Hey, Twinkletoes!"

The clatter of post-dinner clean-up lessens as Aang pauses, head tilting upwards. 

“What is it, Toph?”

She squints, wiggling her toes before raising her head to gaze sightlessly at the sky.

"What do you see right now?"

It's an odd question, and Aang isn't sure how to respond, brow furrowing as his mind tries to unravel the meaning behind the question. He's not sure what she wants, and his fingers resume picking the remainder of dirty plates covered in sauce as he thinks, silent. 

"Well...there's a lot of rock around us--"

"No, doofus. I can feel that stuff." In uncharacteristic Toph fashion, her voice softens, and she makes a wide gesture in the direction of the open sky. "I meant up there." 

There's a slow closing of Aang's mouth as he looks up and takes in the sights, of a quickly darkening sky and orange rays, slanting across the horizon and tinted with pinks and fiery reds. He's seen it, a hundred times, but it never ceases to fill him with wonder and to make his lips curl up ever so slightly at the corners. It's something he thinks he could see each day of his life and never be tired of, and with that thought comes sudden realization and understanding. But he doesn't speak, not just yet, and hefts himself up to go put away the dirty dishes instead, gears quietly spinning. It's a short moment's work, and soon enough he's hopping up, legs folding in a crouch as he perches lightly next to her at the edge of the boulder.

"What did it feel like the first time you found out you could earthbend?"

"How does that have anything to do with what I asked?"

The backdrop of quietly chirping crickets and angrily muttering Sokka is punctuated by a sigh.

"Please, Toph?"

Behind them, angrily muttering Sokka quickly becomes angrily protesting Sokka, joined by furiously yelling Katara and quietly snuffling Appa, but the noise immediately dies down as an oversized chunk of rock whizzes their way and lands about ten feet south of the pair of squabbling siblings.

"It was like...I didn't really realize I was doing it at first. I was just following the badgermoles. And it didn't really make any sense at first, why they were doing what they did. But I kept doing it, and then when I finally realized what I was doing..."

Most of her face is obscured by strands of dark hair, but Aang can see the softening of her lips, and the small smile that appears upon remembrance of the memory.

"...It was amazing."

Aang waits, half expecting a further elaboration, but he's met with nothing but the crickets, livelier now that they're blanketed by a cover of navy blue, with only occasionally punctuated by flares of purple and red. 

"That's kind of what I see right now." Though she can't see it, the smile is evident in his voice as he shifts his gaze from her to the pinpricks of light now appearing in the sky. "It's a little different every time, but it always awes me every time it happens, even though it's something that happens every day. "

Silence falls again, but it's comfortable, thoughtful.

"Thanks, Aang."

Next to her, Aang relaxes - and then promptly yelps and topples off the boulder as a fist slams into his upper arm.

"But no more stupid questions next time you try and explain something."


End file.
